Vapor chamber and upper housing thereof

ABSTRACT

In a vapor chamber and an upper housing, the vapor chamber includes a lower housing, an upper housing and a working fluid. The upper housing is sealed with the lower housing correspondingly. A chamber is formed to circumference between the upper housing and the lower housing. The upper housing includes a substrate and a plurality of heat dissipating fins. The substrate includes an outer surface and an inner wall formed on a rear side of the outer surface. Each one of the heat dissipating fins extends from the outer surface and is integrally formed thereon, and the inner wall includes a fluid retaining structure formed thereon. The working fluid is filled into the chamber. Therefore, all water molecules condensed can be uniformly dropped onto the heated portion of the lower housing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to a vapor chamber, in particular, to a vapor chamber and an upper housing thereof for an electronic heat generation component.

Description of Related Art

As the computing speed of electronic component continues to increase, the thermal energy generated thereby also increases extensively. To effectively solve the problem of generating such a large amount of heat, vapor chambers of excellent heat conductivity has been widely used in the industry. However, there are still lots of rooms for the improvements on the thermal conduction performance, manufacturing costs and feasibility of the manufacturing associated such known vapor chambers.

For a known vapor chamber, it mainly comprises an upper housing and a lower housing, and a capillary structure is installed in the internal spaces of the upper housing and lower housing respectively, following which the upper housing and the lower housing are then soldered onto each other correspondingly. Then, a working fluid is filled into the internal of the upper housing and the lower housing. Finally, the air is extracted from the vapor chamber and openings are then sealed such that the manufacturing process is complete.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that for such known vapor chamber is of the thermal conduction performance, the following problems are found to exist in the actual uses thereof In addition to the application in the processors of computer mainframes and notebook computers for thermal conduction, vapor chambers are also being gradually applied to electronic products of portable tablet computers and smartphones. Since such portable electronic products are not placed in a flat manner during the operation thereof and, for most of the time, they are used in tilted manners during the operations in addition to the operations in the vertical direction, the working fluid inside the vapor chamber then has the problem of being uniformly dropped onto the heated portion of the lower housing, which causes the thermal conduction to significantly reduce in performance. As a result, there is a need for an improvement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a vapor chamber and an upper housing thereof, which utilizes the configuration of each fluid retaining structure to allow each water molecule condensed to be uniformly dropped onto the lower housing.

To achieve the aforementioned objective, the present invention provides a vapor chamber, comprising a lower housing, an upper housing and a working fluid. The upper housing is correspondingly sealed onto the lower housing and includes a chamber formed to circumference between the upper housing and the lower housing. The upper housing comprises a substrate and a plurality of heat dissipating fins. The substrate includes an outer surface and an inner wall formed on a rear side of the outer surface. Each one of the heat dissipating fins is extended from the outer housing and integrally formed thereon. The inner wall includes a fluid retaining structure formed thereon. The working fluid is filled into the chamber.

To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the present invention provides an upper structure of a vapor chamber, comprising a substrate and a plurality of heat dissipating fins. The substrate includes an outer surface and an inner surface formed on a rear side of the outer surface. Each one of the heat dissipating fins is extended from the outer surface and integrally formed thereon. The inner wall includes a fluid retaining structure formed thereon.

The present invention is also of the following technical effects. Since the fluid retaining structure is able to destroy the cohesive force of the water molecules, each water molecule condensed to attach onto the fluid retaining structure would not create an aggregated flow; as a result, each water molecule is allowed to uniformly drop onto the heated portion of the lower housing entirely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a perspective assembly view of the upper housing of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of the upper housing of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective exploded view of the vapor chamber of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an illustration showing the assembly of the vapor chamber of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of the assembly of the vapor chamber of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged cross sectional view showing a state of use of the vapor chamber of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following provides a detailed description on the embodiments and technical content related to the present invention along with the accompanied drawings. However, it shall be understood that the accompanied drawings are provided for illustration purposes only and shall not be treated as limitations of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 5. The present invention provides a vapor chamber and an upper housing thereof, wherein the vapor chamber mainly comprises a lower housing 10, an upper housing 20 and a working fluid 30.

As shown in FIG.1 and FIG. 2, the upper housing 20 can be made of a copper, an aluminum or an alloy thereof, which mainly comprises a rectangular substrate 21 and a plurality of heat dissipating fins 22. The substrate 21 includes an outer surface 211 and an inner wall 212 formed on a rear side of the outer surface 211. Each one of the heat dissipating funs 22 extends from the outer surface 211 and is integrally formed thereon. Each one of the heat dissipating fins 22 can be formed to space apart from each other by a machining process of an extrusion process or a cutting process.

The inner wall 212 can be formed to include a fluid retaining structure 213 disposed entirely thereon by a machining process, wherein the machining process can be a sand blasting process or a knurling process. In addition the fluid retaining structure 213 is a rough surface formed by a plurality of protruding and indented points, and its surface roughness value is between Ra0.01˜10(mm), wherein the surface roughness value is preferably to be Ra0.05˜3(mm). When the surface roughness value is smaller than Ra0.01(mm), it is unable to effectively prevent the flowing and aggregation of the internal working fluid 30 after condensation. Furthermore, when the surface roughness value is greater than Ra10(mm), the overall height is too high such that it cannot satisfy the requirement to be used in an electronic component. Moreover, the machining process of the inner wall 212 can be achieved by a chemical etching process. Additionally, the upper housing 20 further comprises an upper surrounding plate 23 extended from a perimeter of the substrate 21 to bend downward and an attachment plate 24 extended from a perimeter the upper surrounding plate 23 to bend laterally.

As shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5, the lower housing 10 can also be made of a copper, an aluminum or an alloy thereof, which includes a rectangular base plate 11, a lower surrounding plate 12 extended from a perimeter of the base plate 11 to bend upward and an engagement plate 13 extended from a perimeter of the lower surrounding plate 12 to bend laterally. During the assembly, the upper housing 20 is covered onto the lower housing 10 correspondingly such that the attachment plate 24 and the engagement plate 13 are stacked onto each other as well as soldered and sealed onto each other by a soldering process. Therefore, a chamber A is formed to circumference between the upper housing 20 and the lower housing 10. Following the above, an air and liquid transportation pipe (not shown in the drawings) is used to fill a working fluid 30 into the chamber A, and the machining steps of air extraction and sealing are then performed in order to complete the manufacturing of a vapor chamber.

Furthermore, the vapor chamber of the present invention further comprises a capillary structure 40, which can be a metal mesh, a porous metal power sintering article or a fiber bundle. The capillary structure 40 is disposed on top of the base plate 11 of the lower housing 10.

As shown in FIG. 6, during the use of the present invention, the base plate 11 of the lower housing 10 is used as the heated portion, and the base plate 11 is directly in thermal contact with an electronic heat generation source (not shown in the drawings) which generates heat during the computation, and such heat is transferred to the base plate 11 and the working fluid 30 in liquid phase. Once the working fluid 30 in liquid phase is heated, the working fluid 30 is transformed into a vapor phase due to vaporization. When the aforementioned working fluid 30 in vapor phase flows toward the direction of the inner wall 212 of the substrate 21, since the substrate 21 uses the heat dissipation effect of each one of the heat dissipating fins 22, it is able to attach onto the fluid retaining structure 213 such that after the aforementioned working fluid 30 in vapor phase contacts with each one of the fluid retaining structure 213, it is distributed and condensed into a plurality of water molecules. In addition, since the fluid retaining structure 213 is able to destroy the cohesive force of the water molecules, water molecules attached on the fluid retaining structure 213 would not generate an aggregated flow; therefore, all of the water molecules can be uniformly and entirely dropped onto the heated portion (i.e. the base plate 11) of the lower housing.

In view of the above, the vapor chamber and the upper housing thereof of the present invention are able to achieve the expected objective of use while overcoming the drawbacks of the prior arts, which is of novelty and inventive step as well as complies with the requirement for the application of an invention patent. The present invention is, therefore, legitimately applied and seeks for the grant of the patent right for protection of the invention and the right of the inventor. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A vapor chamber, comprising: a lower housing; an upper housing, correspondingly sealed onto the lower housing, having a chamber formed to circumference between the upper housing and the lower housing, the upper housing comprising a substrate and a plurality of heat dissipating fins, the substrate having an outer surface and an inner wall formed on a rear side of the outer surface, each one of the heat dissipating fins being extended from the outer housing and integrally formed thereon, the inner wall having a fluid retaining structure formed thereon; and a working fluid filled into the chamber.
 2. The vapor chamber according to claim 1, wherein the fluid retaining structure is a rough surface constructed by a plurality of protruding and indented points.
 3. The vapor chamber according to claim 2, wherein a surface roughness value of the rough surface is between Ra0.01˜10(mm).
 4. The vapor chamber according to claim 3, wherein the surface roughness value is between Ra0.05˜3(mm).
 5. The vapor chamber according to claim 2, wherein the fluid retaining structure is formed by mechanical machining process or chemical etching process.
 6. The vapor chamber according to claim 5, wherein the mechanical machining process is a sand blasting process or a knurling process.
 7. The vapor chamber according to claim 1, wherein each one of the heat dissipating fins is formed to space apart from one another by an extrusion process or a cutting process.
 8. The vapor chamber according to claim 1, further comprising a capillary structure, and the capillary structure being disposed at an internal of the lower housing.
 9. The vapor chamber according to claim 8, wherein the capillary structure is a metal mesh, a porous metal powder sintering article or a fiber bundle.
 10. An upper structure of a vapor chamber, comprising a substrate and a plurality of heat dissipating fins, the substrate having an outer surface and an inner surface formed on a rear side of the outer surface, each one of the heat dissipating fins being extended from the outer surface and integrally formed thereon, the inner wall having a fluid retaining structure formed thereon.
 11. The vapor chamber according to claim 10, wherein the fluid retaining structure is a rough surface constructed by a plurality of protruding and indented points.
 12. The vapor chamber according to claim 11, wherein a surface roughness value of the rough surface is between Ra0.01˜10(mm).
 13. The vapor chamber according to claim 12, wherein the surface roughness value is between Ra0.05˜3(mm).
 14. The vapor chamber according to claim 11, wherein the fluid retaining structure is formed by mechanical machining process or chemical etching process.
 15. The vapor chamber according to claim 14, wherein the mechanical machining process is a sand blasting process or a knurling process.
 16. The vapor chamber according to claim 10, wherein each one of the heat dissipating fins is formed to space apart from one another by an extrusion process or a cutting process. 